Meet Our Team!
The Greater Chicago International Academy staff is a tight-knit group of administrators, teachers, student advisors, drivers, and recruitment professionals. Led by Stephanie Wang-Taillon, this group strives everyday to serve the students here at GCIA to the best of its ability.
Management Team
Stephanie Wang-Taillon
Assistant Principal
Stephanie Wang-Taillon is the Assistant Principle of the Greater Chicago International Academy (GCIA). She is responsible for managing the GCIA program. Prior to joining GCIA, Stephanie has been a marketing executive for 20 years in various global corporations, included Cargill, United Airlines, Comcast and CUNA Mutual Insurance.
Stephanie was born in Beijing and moved to the U.S. during her teenage years. She has a Bachelor degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She earned her first Master of Science degree from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and her second Master degree in Business Management from Northwestern University’s Kellogg Business School.
Stephanie lives in Barrington, Illinois with her husband and two daughters. She likes traveling, reading, playing tennis and spending time with family and friends.
English Language Learner Instruction Team
We are in the process of hiring a new ELL Instructor.
TBD
ELL Instructor for Guerin College Preparatory High School
Student Advisor Team
Miriam Gonzalez
Miriam graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign with a Bachelor’s degree in Communications. During her sophomore year in college she served as a peer mentor to incoming college freshmen. Through that she was able to meet students from all around the world and her interest in youth mentoring and international interest began. She joined the GCIA team as a Student Advisor in the fall of 2014 and she is now the Activity Coordinator of the program. Miriam enjoys planning different type of events for the students and works hard to make every event fun and enriching for the students. She has yet to master Chinese, but she has learned a lot from interacting with our Chinese students and in return she enjoys sharing her Mexican culture and language with the students. When she isn’t busy helping students, she likes to spend time at home and watch movies and read.
Steven Beatty
Steven Beatty (貝華龍) is a proud citizen of both the United States of America and the Republic of China (Taiwan). Shortly after graduating from Purdue University in 2012 with a B.A. in English and a B.S. in Psychology, he was accepted by the National Taiwan Normal University's Graduate Department of Applied Chinese Language and Culture where he eventually received his M.A. in 2016. Steven enjoys devoting much of his time towards helping both former and current students of the Greater Chicago International Academy and the northwest Indiana Chinese School improve their English and Mandarin, respectively, among other things. His motto is to not worry about who you were or are, but who you can be.
Emmaline Conover
Emmaline enjoys working with international students and colleagues. She attended boarding school as a high school student at the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy. She studied French and Japanese in high school and university. She graduated from university with a BA, having majored in French and East Asian Studies. She went on to teach English to high school students in Japan for three years. Upon returning to the U.S., she earned her MA in International Education Management at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies. Emmaline loves books, movies, languages, traveling, and learning new things.
Facilities Team/Student Advisor
Sam Buffington
Transportation and Facilities Manager, SA
Sam began to work for GCIA in the fall of 2015 as a bus driver. She now manages the Transportation and Facilities as well as being a Student Advisor, coordinating many aspects of GCIA. She also works as an SA. Sam takes her job very seriously and is always alert. Sam enjoys bonding with our students and is always ready to listen and support them. She is always offering her friendship, her delicious homemade treats, and her hobbies. She enjoys cooking, sewing, and crocheting when she isn’t busy making trips for the students.
